


Lemon Boy

by shiftyking



Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: M/M, Memories, Referenced Child Abuse, Series 5, Set after Quarantine, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, referenced mental health problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:07:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26141605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiftyking/pseuds/shiftyking
Summary: Set just after Quarantine.As Rimmer is kept in Quarantine as punishment for how he acted he decides to sort his memories out. However it all goes horribly wrong when Lister decided to go through Rimmer's memories too.
Relationships: Dave Lister/Arnold Rimmer
Comments: 13
Kudos: 39





	1. The Bittersweet Man

Rimmer wasn’t stupid he knew he’d be kept in the Quarantine suite for as long as Lister felt he deserved. Cat was going to convince Lister to keep him there as long as the pea brained moggy could remember. He decided it would be somewhere around three weeks. So he bedded in. He had nothing to do. He couldn’t ask Holly to do anything. He couldn’t put on videos, or doodle, or do anything to pass the time really. But growing up in a dangerous and chaotic household taught him one thing how to be invisible and cope in odd and difficult situations. In fact he’d been locked in his room with only basic food for around a month once and he was only let out because he had to be taken to hospital for malnutrition again so being stuck in Quarantine was a piece of cake. At least no-one could hurt him here.

He’d switch his battery to switch his personality on standby manually at night so he was barely present. It was the closest to sleep he had. However he knew Lister may cotton on so he kept that just for the nights. During the day he’d found other ways to pass the time. 

Holographic memories were different to human memories. They became files and code. Every kiss to every slap was categorised and accessible by the computer and himself. So he decided to give his brain a good tidy. Nothing was removable sadly without getting permission from Holly but moving stuff well that was dead easy.

He could just close his eyes and scroll through them all like a big old slide show of his life. Looking through different memories and putting them in more corresponding folders than the computers autosuggestions. He didn’t like how they’d been automatically categorised as 0.1,7236, 8.9 and so on. Certain bits he cordoned off refused to look at them. Large amounts of hospital stays, and being fed sugar water through a tube they all were put in a childhood Hospital folder not to be looked at. It was genius. Cataloguing his brain. He was surprised he’d never come up with such a concept before.

It was day five when Lister became bored. Life was no fun without someone to bicker with and Rimmer was taking his punishment way too well. Cat was dull. Kryten got irritating if he wasn't in small doses. Sometimes he just wanted to reminisce about things that only him and Rimmer understood.He didn’t miss him exactly it wasn’t like that but it was something. So he traipsed down to the Quarantine suite and stood behind the glass watching Rimmer do very little. It was boring like watching a dead fish in a bowl. Rimmer just lay there. His eyes were completely grey which was very weird. 

“Hello Your majesty ” he shouted sarcastically down the intercom.  
Rimmer’s eyes went back to the right colour and he rolled them at Lister “no i find it peaceful actually”.  
“How?” Lister practically shouted “you have nothing to do, you can’t do anything and you have no one to talk to”  
Rimmer smiled evilly “and?”  
Lister was done. He turned off the intercom and left watching Rimmer’s eyes turn grey again. He knew Rimmer was up to something but he didn’t know what it was but that was ok. He'd just pop down to the hologram suite and find out. If Rimmer wouldn’t talk to him he could just poke about it in his files for a bit.

Rimmer lay there again moving memories. His brothers now had their own folders. Putting their various hospital experiences in as well as for some reason it helped him knowing that his parents hurt them too. They all reacted differently. They may have got the best jobs, wives, kids whatever but they would somewhere deep down be just as traumatised as him. It made him feel better somehow. 

Meanwhile Lister was in the Hologram Suite. As he sat in the large room he logged into the screen and looked at Rimmer’s memory history. “Brutal” He said to himself. He thought maybe Rimmer was going through every sexual experience he ever had or something else epic to pass the time. Not that Rimmer had many of those. That’s what he’d do if he was on his own for that long. 

He looked at the folders on his screen and clicked “Social Worker”. The folder names made him click back. Names like Nice Lady , Beating, Malnutrition and Betrayal were enough to make him cringe. He looked as the images played hints of them as he held over them. Would it be wrong to click them? Well he wasn’t sure but he was bored as hell. 

He started on “She called it Malnutrition” and the videos booted quickly. A tiny skinny boy turned up on the screen half passed out wearing short pyjamas. He blinked back and forth in the mirror covered in bruises and scars up his arms. He turned from the mirror and padded down the stairs as cries of “Arnold” seemed to get louder the closer he got. Three other very skinny boys were standing around the table and a woman and a man Lister realised must be his parents. A woman was there as well some sort of social worker who was talking to them. The boy didn’t seem to take it all in.

Lister thought about the memories he’d seen and realised Rimmer had never lied or exaggerated about his childhood. This stuff seemed to be pretty true. He wondered what the social worker was doing. Checking Up on them he assumed. But why weren’t they taken away? The next clip had the same social worker and the boys in hospital getting checked over and weighed. The three older ones refuse to say anything against their parents. Arnold speaks and speaks explaining and explaining. The social worker looks sick. The next one the social worker apologizes at the front door to the parents. The boys stand resolute as they are told there will be no charges due to their fathers social standing. Arnold looks sick and calls out to her following her into the garden. Rimmer senior grabs his back as she mouths “I’m sorry”.  
Lister leant back sadly. 

Meanwhile in Quarantine Rimmer made a strange face as the “Social Worker” folder opened. He was confused he hadn’t even thought about it. Who would override it? It was meant to stay closed. But then he figured Holly would have background programmes running that occasionally popped up so he let it go.


	2. Pulled by the roots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lister keeps clicking through Rimmer's memories and finds something he doesn't know what to do with.

The next day Lister came back to the Hologram suite after breakfast. Parked himself back in the chair putting his feet up on the desk and clicked on the childhood hospital folder. Clicking on the ones where Rimmer was older. A 13 year old staring with big wide eyes in a hospital room .Too afraid to eat. Worried he was going to be taken home. He hadn’t eaten a lot in some time.They had put him on a sugar water drip. He wanted to pull it out. But he didn’t, he just lay there. The doctors asked more questions. He was silent “How’s John?” Rimmer finally asked letting the silence break. The Doctor responds to something inaudible. The memory ends.

Now Lister was curious he clicked around looking for John Rimmer. He figured that was his brother. He clicked on the John folder. Taking a moment to watch the memories move around into different folders. It was odd but it was just so Rimmer to organise his own mind it made him miss him. 

On the John folder he found a “WORST DAY DO NOT OPEN” in it. So naturally he did, It corresponded with the dates on the video. It started with Arnold in his room.He’s taller now but still skinny, his hair is thin, his eyes bulge out of his head. A small room with a concrete floor barely anything in it. His clothes seem too small. He looks cold. It must be a holiday of some kind. There's screaming downstairs and the boy stares at the door nervously. He’s just sitting there holding a space-corp book. The shouting gets louder. John’s back from the Space Corp early. Someone is coming up the stairs and suddenly a bolt unlocks. That throws Lister. He’s locked in. He’s literally locked in, a smegging child is locked in his room.  
“Hey Arnold” a figure lollops in. Short hair and shiny boots and uniform on. He looks miserable he had a black eye forming and he looked so tired.

The boy waves awkwardly unsure what to say. 

“I walked out if you were wondering I’m done with this shit..all of it” John says sitting on the end of the boys bed pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. The smoke stings the boys nose “I just..came to say goodbye properly”

The boy doesn’t move much, just looks at him “why are you telling me?”

“Because you deserve to get out. For god's sake get out I mean look at you” he says gesturing at him.

“This is just how I look” Arnold replies quietly 

“Jeeesus” John exhales “no it isn’t. No one looks like that. Only sick people look like us. They have me on a special diet at the spacecorp. Can’t even begin firearm training til i’m over a certain weight. How can I leave the planet without firearm training. Th longer I’m here the worse it gets.. They have me as stuck as our parents do. Arnie do they even let you outside anymore?”

“occasionally if I get the answers right” Arnold says pointing to the book.

“So thats a no” John said quietly

“I thought you were saying goodbye” Arnold whispered slightly angrily

“I was. Did Dad tell you another one of his students killed themselves this week” John said breathing out the smoke hanging in the air.

Arnold nodded. It had been a tense week. Howard who was still living in the house was hiding out too. Frank hadn’t rang once. Things were always worse when something bad happened to Dad. They knew he wasn’t in trouble but it was scary. 

“Well this’ll be six down now then” John breathed.

“Five” Arnold corrected

“Yeah.. five sure Bye Arnold” and John left slowly undoing his belt. The door hung open. He was going up to the attic. Arnold didn’t know why. He got up. He knew he shouldn’t leave the room but he looked around the cornerThe memory ended,

The next memory began. Arnold starts going up to the attic. The memory fizzes someones hanging from the attic. SMEG. Lister closes it off. SMEG SMEG SMEG. He watches a few more he has to know. He has to.

The next is just an ambulance. The inside. The two boys in it. Mr Rimmer screaming outside. Mrs Rimmer standing there quietly. The doors close. Wait how did Arnold end up in it. Thats missing. Lister stands there unsure what to do. But he has to know so he keeps clicking. 

John’s alive. Just. They got him down in time. But it was close. No one is there to visit them. John goes home the next week. He’s back in the space corp just two days later like nothing happened. Arnold sees him he doesn’t smile. He’s been to therapy he says. You should come home he says. The memory ends.

Lister closed the memory quietly. Unsure what to do. He wanted answers. He wanted to understand. He wanted to hug Rimmer. This was barely scratching the sides. No wonder he was how he was. There were other folders with different names popping up. He wanted to be sick. The Uncle Frank folder had some worrying titles too.He clicked on That Night. But as it started playing he clicked back. He couldn’t stomach it. Why was his father like that? Why did his brothers abandon him? Why did no one care?

In the Quarantine suite. Arnold’s eyes stopped being grey. He lay there in panic. He hadn’t had a panic attack in a little while. He felt sick. He hadn’t wanted to remember that. Who was looking at what happened with Uncle Frank or John’s suicide attempt? Why could he not forget? What was going on? He collapsed in pain on the floor

Lister wanted to cleanse his brain. He clicked on crushes and sexual experiences. School Experiences now that sounded fun. He clicked on the folder marked Io House. He was seriously looking forward to something special. Maybe there was an all girls school opposite Io House. He bet it got juicy. He did but it was nothing to do with school girls at all which was a big old surprise. 

There was one of a young Arnold snogging a prefect in a cupboard.

There he was all curly hair still dull looking but a little better. His eyes less sunken. A boy passes a bread roll into his pocket and he smiles so big that Lister thinks he might drown in it. The boy grabs his hand and off they go. 

There were a few more. Io House seemed to have quite a lot going on. Every other memory seemed to end with shouting and the memory fizzes out. But they were all boys older or his ages.

In fact he was starting to think that maybe Rimmer wasn’t into girls at all. In fact bar McGruder there wasn’t a single one. Rimmer’s entire relationship and sexual experience folder was all men not that the folder was that big anyway. It made some sense. He sat back in his chair wondering what to do now.

He was broken from his thought process by Holly on the screen “You need to get to Rimmer something’s gone wrong” She cried. She looked stressed out. 

“In what way” Lister asked grabbing his coat and taking his feet off the desk. He logged out as Holly followed him on the screens along the corridor.

“Some sort of panic attack. His light bee’s overheating. His personality drives gone weird. I can’t access it completely. But it’s bad Lister. He’s really hurt I can feel it” Holly said urgently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty Triggery in this bit please be careful. look after yourselves.
> 
> Pretty dark chapter I know but I hope you in some way enjoyed it. 
> 
> Comments are love!!


	3. the clouds are out of rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rimmer needs help and Holly finds out about Lister's antics

Lister ran as Holly babbled. “You know he wasn’t meant to be hologramatised he was deemed too unstable. I mean I overode it for you but maybe...” She seemed genuinely concerned. Lister calmed her quietly. He found himself going faster and faster to the quarantine suite. 

He keyed the code in the door and ran in. Rimmer was on the floor glitching, pixelated at the edges of his. His image flickered on and off. He looked like he’d been crying. He was retching, his arms pixelated out where Lister knew the scars were. He was aware suddenly how skinny he was. He looked so young suddenly nothing like the snarly man he grown to tolerate, This was the worst he’d seen him in a long time except for the memories he;d just watched.. 

“Hol what do I do” Lister screamed down next to Rimmer trying to do anything. He didn’t think Rimmer could hear him.

“Switch him off I need to reboot him in safe mode and find out the issue” Holly replied.

Rimmers hand was blindly groping for his light bee but of course he couldn’t touch it. Lister reached over and grabbed the bee. It was hot in his hand burning his fingers. Rimmer stared at him his eyes odd colours. He looked so wrong. Lister whispered to him “I’ll fix this man I swear”. He flicked the switch and the bee fell in his hand. He cradled it like it was the most precious thing in the world.

“Take him to the holo suite. I’ll meet you there” Holly stated and then fizzed off the screen leaving Lister clutching the bee. He walked carefully but quickly. It had started cooling down but it still prickled his fingers. He’d wished he’d put on his gloves today.

For the second time that day he went to the Hologram Projection Suite but this time he was far elss happy. He was petrified. 

He ran across slowly plugging the lightbee in as Holly appeared again on the screen in front of him. 

“K I’m gonna run some scans” Holly said loudly and then her screen went black.

Lister just watched the lights on the light bee. The red standby light and the blue warning light blinking steadily.

Holly appeared back on the screen still looking worried.

“His memory core’s unstable. I think it’s gone wrong because of being left alone” Holly said quietly

Lister immediately felt bad. 

“It couldn’t be because I was accessing them could it?” He asked quietly

“You what” Holly said looking furious

“Well it’s just he was moving them and wouldn’t talk to me so I clicked into it” Lister replied quickly suddenly feeling very guilty.

“I can’t even tell you how stupid you’ve been” Holly started and then stopped frustrated “you know what Lister get out I’ll reboot him on my own”

The door behind him opened automatically. Lister wanted to beg. He wanted to say he would stay but he knew that wouldn’t help.So he walked out sadly his head down in shame. He shuffled his way back to the bunkroom completely unsure of what to do now. Kryten walked past him he assumed Holly had called him to help with any manual things that she couldn’t do physically. 

As he rounded the corner to the bunkroom he saw Cat in one of the old staff dining areas. He decorated it obviously and boas were everywhere.  
“Hey man you wanna see something cool spoiler alert it’s me” Cat called from across the room from his pile of sequins and other shiny things. Lister sighed at least it would take up some time.

Meanwhile in the Hologram suite Holly started quietly sorting files to get Rimmer ready for a safe reboot. It was complicated. Holograms for the ship weren’t meant to be left on this long. They normally kept going until family met higher ups and decided whether to put them on a better light bee and take them home or switch them off. They weren’t meant to develop or change or become people in their own right. They were just strings of code in the shape of a person. Except with Rimmer that had changed. Rimmer wasn’t just a string of code. His code had changed and evolved. He lived differently, he acted differently. He was a very big file one Holly felt strangely protective of. She was incredibly furious Lister had managed to break him so badly. Kryten sat there tidying until he was needed. He’d been told to stay as he probably would be required and so he sat there with a chair cleaning happily between the keys of disused keyboards occasionally nodding to Holly. 

Holly was getting close to the actual switch on now. All files had been checked out and put back. She wiped the access records figuring that would be easier but wrote a note to herself of everything that Lister accessed. She’d scream at Lister later right now she had to finish tidying up Rimmer’s broken brain. The files with the worse titles she ran through her system again deciding what to do with them. Hopefully that would help. He could wait for them after all she doubted he’d want them back for a bit. She finished his filing system too. It was easy to think like him when all his memories were swimming in her files. Leaving them saved away from him. She rewatched the last few minutes of what happened before he was switched off. 

She was ready and called Kryten over. It was time to switch him back on and cross her metaphorical and Kryten’s stubby plastic fingers that it worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry its been so long. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Comments are love!


	4. The Savory type

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly starts to fix the mess Lister created.

Safe boots were slow on purpose. They held back any complicated files so that you could turn them on if needed. Holly always found them disconcerting. The way a holograms body would reappear but there eyes would be grey. No-one at home.

The next set of files went in and Rimmer’s eyes went back to their usual color. His face remaining expressionless. Then the first layers of personality. None of the memories that affected him yet. Barely any emotions either he was too volatile for that. Just add in the basics. She didn’t know the extent of the damage. Just enough of him to make sure he’s there.

His eyes opened and closed a few times. He looked confused and shook his head lightly as if something was on his shoulder. 

“State name and rank” Holly asked following protocol  
“Arnold Judas Rimmer, Second technician” Rimmer replied robotically  
“What ship do you serve on Arnold?” Holly asked again , basic questions, protocol.  
“Red Dwarf” Rimmer replied

She nodded to herself. The basics were in. He didn’t seem unstable. Kryten stood in front of him.

“Hello Sir” Kryten said kindly  
“Hello My name is Arnold judas Rimmer” Rimmer replied, still robotically.

“He isn’t there yet Kryten” Holly reminded kindly and the Robot sat back down smiling to himself he’d been helping with the process

“Arnold your memories caused you to break down. We’ve rebooted you in safe mode for now”  
Holly told him 

Rimmer’s head titled. “What memories were they?”

“Memories of your childhood Arnold” Holly replied

Rimmer continued to look bewildered “which ones”

Holly looked at Kryten who looked back at her unsure what to say so she didn’t address it.

“I’m scanning them at the moment Arnold” She replied trying to sound confident “so at the moment everything will be coming back slowly and all of your family and childhood memories are being sorted. This could be some time. You are to report back here and stay here at night for now so I can keep an eye on you”  
Rimmer looked at the screen, confused but resigned. He sat down on the chair next to Kryten and watched him dust. Making occasional banal chit chat and trying not to think about the massive wire sticking out of his light bee and into the console. 

Meanwhile Holly popped up onto the screen nearest Lister and Cat.

“Lister” She shrieked “get in your bunkroom right now I need to talk to you urgently”

She popped off the screen.

Cat looked at him “woah man she’s pissed with you”

Lister sighed, unwilling to talk about it, grabbed another beer pulling on the ring pull and sloped out towards his bunk room expecting the bollocking of a lifetime. He also hoped Rimmer was doing ok. 

As he rounded into the bunkroom Holly sat there staring at him. He knew he was in trouble now.

“Firstly he’s fine. He’s being rebooted, all his nasty childhood memories have had to be removed and all his family ones. I’m trying to keep them away from him while he recovers a bit. I’m not sure he fully remembers what happened. If you so much as get close to telling him what you did or what you saw or say so much as a cross word to him I don’t care that you're the last human I will flush you out of the airlock. Understand” She threatened

Lister looked at the ground and shuffled his feet “yeah”

“Good and be bloody nice to him for a change” she added and then she blinked off the screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while guys. I'm back at work and its been a little bit nuts!!
> 
> and yes I've changed all the names of the chapters to song lyrics!
> 
> Comments are love!


	5. Plant Seeds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rimmer is bored and Lister actually helps this time

Kryten and Holly would have to spend some time on the whole memory issue. They were a big ol’ problem, a big scary problem. Meanwhile Rimmer just sat about looking at screens. He’d look at data and relay the files to Kryten. Kryten found it strange he wasn’t himself at all. It was pleasant but wrong. The wire was still sticking out of him and would be for a while. They didn’t want him roaming for a while. 

Meanwhile Holly went through memory data.

\-----Booting-----File-Uncle Frank-------THAT NIGHT--------------

She had a look shut it and was so angry she had to look up Franks data to make sure he’d died horribly (Simulant gun fire on the battle of Mimas he was tortured this made her happy) before she could continue.   
Meanwhile Lister trailed around. Now bored of Cat he just walked about the ship feeling sorry for himself. He finally made it to the Holo suite where he knocked very gently.

“Door” a familiar voice said and the door slid open revealing Lister standing there.

“Hello Lister” Rimmer said slightly nicely before turning back to his screen reading numbers out loud.

“Hey Rimmer” He looked at him “jeesus whats the cord for”

Rimmer rolled his eyes “I crashed apparently something to do with memories this is temporary. Boring though nothing to do just data to read I think I’ve read this page of calculations twice and I don’t know what these mean at all” He gestured at a bunch of symbols. 

Lister looked at the symbols then back at Rimmer “wow sounds dull want me to bring up one of your books or something?”

Rimmer regarded him oddly “you’d do that?”

“Yeah sure” Lister replied guiltily

Rimmer sighed “you’d have to stay and turn the pages” 

“I can do that” Lister responded his eyes wide. Rimmer didn’t know what he’d done and he didn’t need to but he still needed to make it up to him.

Rimmer smiled lightly as Lister got up and left briefly stopping to wave at Kryten who was behind a screen reviewing memories.. He ran to the Bunkroom to find some reading material. He summoned Holly.

Holly was halfway through a folder that was incredibly distressing and if she popped up on the screen with her mascara running. Lister didn’t comment. 

“How bad is it?” Lister asked quietly

“It’s smegging terrible. There’s so much to wade through.I’m wiping Kryten’s memory every hour so his processor doesn’t burn out” she replied.

Lister then explained his plan. She nodded looking tired.  
“I like it but ground rules nothing about childhood at all. No reminiscing. No memories. So you can read one of the books no astro nav books nothing given to him by his family”

Lister searched through the books. There were only 10 or 11 balanced along the shelf. Rimmer loved all of them and even when they argued Lister wouldn’t dare deface them. They were too precious even the stupid astro nav text books.

“No astronavs?” Lister clarified

“Nope”

“Thats 3 books what about his his Morris Dancing magazines” 

She scrolled down the memories “nope”

“Oh he loves those and they aren’t from his childhood?” Lister questioned

“Yeah I know he loves them I know why” Holly replied sadly smiling

“Not a bad one?” 

“Well the memory isn’t but the aftermath is too dangerous at the moment. God his dad was a piece of work. What else?

“ 2 books on morris dancing are out so True adventures of War Daring Do?” 

“Nope present from someone nasty”

“Dictators a Positive Guide?”

“Nope from his Dad”

“How to be a Good Ionian Soldier?”

“Nope really not”

“Jesus will Save: A Guide for those who need to be forgiven”

“Smeg No”

“Telegraph poles a tour of Earth’s Eastern Europe”

“Yep that ones clear”

Lister looked down at it and sighed this was going to be awful but he owed Rimmer this much. He’d caused enough pain and suffering he couldn’t begrudge the man his telegraph poles. He walked back to the suite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I know its been a while but here we are the next update!
> 
> comments keep me going!


	6. Pretty Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lister starts to read. Rimmer stresses. Holly tries to hold everything together including herself.

It was not actually that bad. Well the book was atrociously boring but actually reading it with Rimmer wasn’t that bad at all. Lister started wondering if he could just scan books in. Holly used to have a huge bunch of books in her head so that could be an option. His mind drifted as Rimmer listened quietly every now and then looking happier. Lister had got to chapter 2: The Legacy of Telegraphs in Moldova when Rimmer piped up.

“Lister you can stop now, you must be bored stiff” Rimmer said watching Lister intently.

“Nah I can keep going if you want. Keep you company” Lister said shifting in his chair.

“Right that settles it” Rimmer said authoritatively “what did you do? because you aren’t this nice unless you’ve done something wrong. So what did you do that left me like this” He gestured at the cord empaling him.

Lister continued to shift and averted his eyes. He swore Rimmer could look right through him sometimes. He supposed that had something to do with his background he probably trusted no one and now he had even less of a reason to trust Lister. He always thought he was up to something the more Lister knew that Rimmer was right because in fairness Lister was generally up to something.

“Um nothin” Lister replied.

“For Smegs sake Lister what did you do this time, thought it’d be funny to swallow my lightbee again” Rimmer glitched suddenly “seriously what have you done” He looked scared. He couldn’t move just stuck looking horrified.

Holly flashed on the screen as Rimmer’s eyes once again went grey to brown to grey again.  
“Rimmer what are you doing?” She asked he still looked scared and angry “crap he’s trying to go into his memories right override ships hologram AJR”

“Wait he can do that?” Lister asked quietly

“He’s human or he was Lister he’s thinking through. He was thinking of things you’d done and he went up against the wall I’ve put up. To be honest I think I may have to take even more offline. The problem is memories are all interconnected.. The system doesn’t hold them right they all join together thats why its so hard to clean them up” Holly stressed loudly.

Rimmer’s eyes went brown again. Holly looked at him.  
"lets try this. Lister I need to do some behidn the scenes stuff you keep an eye, disable him if needed" she said tilting her head to a big red button.

“Lister?” Rimmer asked quietly 

Lister went over   
“Yeah mate whats up?”

“I have a massive wire in me”

“Yeah you broke down something to do with your memories your stuck here for a bit”

Rimmer tilted his head and sighed “just bloody typical”

Lister reached over for the book again “want me to read to ya?”

Rimmer smiled confused but grateful “yeah that would be nice. I suppose by how nice your being I’m going to be stuck here for a while

Lister nodded silently sat back down for the second go. With less memories Rimmer was holding in there, being himself a bit more. He wondered what kind of complicated agreement Holly had made in his data to let this happen. He wondered when it would inevitably break again. But for now he would stay and read a bloody boring book and try not to picture the fear on Rimmer’s face when he asked him what he’d done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry It's been a while. I've had to prioritise work and freelance work and then other life admin that I've just been too tired to write! But all your comments seriosuly made me smile. thanks so much you guys keep me going!
> 
> Comments are love!

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this story is inspired by Cavetown's song Lemon boy (where the title is from) which should be the Rimster anthem TBH!  
> Anyway I hope you like the start of this new story
> 
> I hope to have the end of Into the Fire up soon but I'm running behind on that because I got distracted andI have had some stuff go on sorry!


End file.
